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Overwhelmed by insurance issues? You don’t have to face them alone
Leaders of Patient Advocate Foundation’s case management program explain how we support patients and families
Since our founding more than 30 years ago, the Patient Advocate Foundation (PAF) has been helping people navigate complex healthcare challenges. Central to our founding and our mission is our case management program, which provides free, one-on-one support to patients and families to help them solve real-life problems with accessing and affording the care they need. In 2025, our team of more than 50 case managers helped about 15,000 people find solutions to an array of healthcare challenges—so they could focus on getting better.
Patients often wonder what PAF’s case management program can and can’t do for them. To share more, we turned to two longtime staff members: Courtney Jones, Vice President of Case Management Programs, who oversees the program, and Erin Bradshaw, Executive Vice President for Development and Strategy, a former case manager who now raises funds that make the program possible.
Read on to learn how our highly trained case managers can help you.
Q: How would you describe Patient Advocate Foundation’s case management program?
Courtney Jones: We often hear that navigating the healthcare system is a full-time job, even when you have insurance. People with chronic, life-threatening illnesses can face countless hurdles trying to access prescribed treatment, from maximizing their insurance coverage to fighting billing issues to locating resources to help pay for the costs of care. Our case management program lifts those burdens and helps guide patients to a resolution. We’re proud to provide this unique service.
Erin Bradshaw: The case management program is at the core of what we do at Patient Advocate Foundation. It doesn’t matter your income, household size, or insurance status. If you’re a legal resident of the U.S., have a confirmed diagnosis of a serious health condition, and are in active treatment or starting treatment for your condition, we can help. I’d say the two areas where our case managers can have the most impact for patients are appealing insurance denials and accessing disability benefits.
Q: How can Patient Advocate Foundation’s case managers help with insurance denials?
EB: When an insurance claim is denied or a medical bill comes in, many people assume that’s the end of the story. But mistakes happen all the time, and you have the right to appeal these decisions if you believe treatment should be covered. This is where we can step in. The appeals process may seem overwhelming to you as a patient, but that’s what our case managers are here for. We can run with it and help you understand your options. And solving that problem often has a lasting effect on your care. Learn more about how PAF helps resolve insurance denials.
Q: How can Patient Advocate Foundation’s case managers help with disability benefits?
CJ: There are many kinds of disability benefits: Social Security or employer-based, short-term or long-term. These plans are designed to help when an unexpected health crisis prevents you from working. But actually getting those benefits can be complicated—on average it takes 7 months to receive Social Security Disability Insurance or Supplemental Security Income benefits once you apply.
Our case managers are really good at untangling all that. We can quickly figure out whether you’re eligible to apply for disability. We follow up to make sure your application paperwork is received and that you don’t miss any critical deadlines. If there’s a delay, we know who to contact to get things moving. Our goal is to expedite the decision so you can receive the disability benefits you deserve as soon as possible. Learn how PAF can help people access disability benefits.
Q: What’s it like to work with a PAF case manager?
CJ: First, we listen to what’s going on. Then we ask a lot of questions to dig even deeper. For example, someone might come to us because they can’t afford a $4,000 medication copay. That’s definitely a barrier—but our case managers might discover that price tag is due to an issue with how their insurance classified the medication. So PAF not only fixes the short-term problem; we also try to get to the root cause.
Our case management staff have diverse backgrounds: human services, nursing, medical billing, you name it. But they all share a passion for this work and a desire to do it well. We work with you until we’ve turned over every stone and reached a resolution—hopefully, a positive one.
EB: The healthcare system is complex and hard to navigate. PAF knows how to navigate it because we’ve been doing it for 30 years. Our case managers know which questions to ask and which medical records to send. With permission, we will research your health plan, call or fax your doctor’s office, connect with your employer’s HR department, help complete medical paperwork, and more. More importantly, PAF case management is about walking alongside you, helping you understand what’s going on, and helping you become an advocate for yourself. Our staff is highly trained, and we help as many people as we can each day*. We might not be able to address the problem you came to us with, but we likely can help in other ways. We want every patient to feel seen and heard.
Q: How does Patient Advocate Foundation personalize case management support?
CJ: Every individual’s case is different. We respond to each patient’s needs and what they’re calling us for. We want to build a relationship with you. We provide regular updates along the way, so you always know where your case stands and what the next steps are. On average, PAF case managers will communicate with an individual patient, family member, or outside stakeholder more than 35 times.
Q: Is case management the same as financial aid?
EB: No, our case managers don’t provide direct financial assistance. Instead, we can help you find other resources to help with out-of-pocket healthcare costs, such as PAF’s TotalAssist grant program.
CJ: We know that too often, people with serious and chronic illnesses are forced to choose between paying for the cost of healthcare and necessities like food, rent, or utilities. They may skip or delay lifesaving care to stay afloat, which is heartbreaking and can lead to worse health outcomes. While PAF case managers may be able to direct you to programs that can help with some of these financial challenges, they don’t provide any direct financial assistance to patients. Learn how PAF can help address financial hardship.
Feeling stuck with a health insurance denial, disability benefits application, or other healthcare issue? Patient Advocate Foundation can help. Call 1-800-532-5274 (Monday-Friday, 8:30am-5:00pm ET) to be paired with a case manager and learn more at patientadvocate.org.
*Providing a quality experience to every patient we work with is our number one priority. To ensure our case management team can provide the in-depth, hands-on support required to resolve access and affordability challenges faced by patients and families calling us for help, we limit the number of new cases our case management team can accept each day. If you call and we are unable to accept your case at the time you call, please call us back the next day.